Shawn M. Christianson focuses her practice on insolvency, receiverships, and complex litigation with an emphasis on technology related issues. She represents financial institutions, secured and unsecured creditors, technology companies, receivers, and bankruptcy trustees. Her practice spans the state, federal and bankruptcy courts, as well as out of court proceedings and mediation. She argued, and prevailed at every level from the trial court through the Ninth Circuit, a seminal case on the topic of perfection of security interests in unregistered copyrights, In re: World Auxiliary Power.

Ms. Christianson is a former member of Buchalter's Board of Directors, as well as the former Managing Shareholder of the Firm's San Francisco office. Ms. Christianson was elected to and served two terms on the Board of Directors as a Director-At-Large of the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation and is a former Co-Chair of the Northern California Network of IWIRC.

She has served on several boards and committees, including the California Receiver's Forum, the Bay Area Chapter of the California Receiver's Forum, where she also served as Vice President, the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum ("BABF"), BABF's Program and Finance Committees and the organizing committee of the California Bankruptcy Forum's Fifth Annual Conference. She was appointed to a three-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and served on the Northern District of California's Local Rules Committee which addressed both the District and Bankruptcy Court's Local Rules. She is a trained mediator and has acted as a Resolution Advocate on the Bankruptcy Dispute Resolution Panel in the Northern District of California since that Panel's creation. She served as both Chair and Vice-Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco's Commercial Law and Bankruptcy section, and was a founding member of the Barrister Club's Speakers Bureau. She is a frequent lecturer and author, and has been profiled in the Receivership News.

Bar Admissions

• California

Education

• The University of California College of the Law, J.D.
• Boston College, B.S., magna cum laude

• Buchalter COVID-19 Client Alert: San Francisco Moves to Lowest COVID Tier in California, Begins Process of Reopening Non-Essential Offices; Other Bay Area Counties Slower to Follow

  By Shawn Christianson |November 2020

• Ninth Circuit News: Appellate Court Refines Receiver Appointment Powers Generally and in Diversity Actions
• Introduction to California Receivership Law
• Female Powerbrokers Q&A: Buchalter's Shawn Christianson
• Receivership Sales
• Appellate Court Refines Receiver Appointment Powers Generally and in Diversity Actions
• Security Interest in Unregistered Copyright Perfected Under UCC Article 9
• Stay Tuned: World Auxiliary Power Submitted to Ninth Circuit
• Insolvency: What Every Technology Company Needs to Know About Claims Against Bankrupt Customers And Business Partners
• What Every Technology Company Needs to Know About Assumption, Assumption and Assignment, Or Rejection Of Its Contracts In Bankruptcy
• Shawn M. Christianson Speaking at the American Bar Association Business Law Section Annual Meeting
• Shawn Christianson a Panelist at the California Receivers Forum
• Shawn Christianson, panelist at TMA Conference
• Shawn Christianson, Speaker at the Bar Association of San Francisco
• Shawn Christianson Lectures at University of California, Berkeley
• Shawn Christianson Panelist at California Receivers Forum
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at TMA Western Regional Credit Conference
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at Western Region Credit Conference
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at the Bar Association of San Francisco
• Shawn Christianson Panelist at Hastings Law School
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at California Receivers Forum: Loyola Seminar
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at The Council for Women of Boston College
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at California Receivers Forum: Loyola Seminar
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at the San Francisco Bar Association – Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at the American Bar Association
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at the California Receivers Forum
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at the American Bar Association
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at Lorman Education Services
• Shawn Christianson Speaks at American Conference Institute
• Shawn Christianson Lectures at University of California, Berkeley
• Shawn Christianson, Speaker at the University of California, Berkeley
• Shawn Christianson, Speaker at the American Bar Association Business Law Section
• Shawn Christianson, Speaker at San Mateo Chamber of Commerce Professional Women's Networking Event
• Shawn Christianson, Speaker at The Bay Area Chapter of the California Receivers Forum
• IWIRC Strategic Planning
• Shawn Christianson and Jeff Garfinkle, Speakers at the Financial Lawyers Conference
• Shawn Christianson, Speaker at the Barristers Club of San Francisco Bar Association
• Shawn Christianson, Guest Lecturer at UC Law SF (fka Hastings College of the Law)
• Shawn M. Christianson, Guest Lecturer at UC Berkeley
• Shawn M. Christianson, Panelist at the 2024 National Association of Federal Equity Receivers (NAFER) Annual Conference